Josie
“A strong woman and Resistance fighter who is currently trapped in the castle. Her relationship with Dan is complicated by the fact that she thinks he’s dead.” '- Official Dan the Man Game Bio' Josie '''is one of the main characters in the series. A protective fighter and concerned citizen, she became Dan's love interest in Stage Two after they fought and destroyed a giant robot together - which had threatened the Inn she watches over as its caretaker. Role '''Josie is the deuteragonist of the series. She '''fights alongside her boyfriend Dan - and the Ninja Rebels of the Resistance on occasion - to rebel against the corrupt forces of the King. As the series goes on, she is determined to further her relationship with Dan, though his erratic behavior - and seeming interest in Ana - has frustrated '''Josie’s efforts from time to time. Josie '''is a dynamic character, showcasing true development as the stages go on, and has a recurring theme of coming to terms with her depression and fears - all of which she overcomes to save herself; her loved ones; and the innocent who cannot fend for themselves. Notably, '''Josie '''is a sapient being within her own world (both within the web series and video game incarnations); this means she sees her world the same way we see our own as being real. However, this leads to complications when her boyfriend has a tendency to treat life as if it were a game of sorts - a spoof on how real life players sometimes commit violent/improper behavior within video games for personal amusement. Regardless, life doesn’t keep her down for long, and she always seems to bounce back when misfortune strikes. Whether it be the King’s forces, morally ambiguous Ninja Rebels of the Resistance, or her boyfriend Dan being himself, she grits through her problems with determination and an iron will. Appearance '''Josie is shown in the series to own at least two sets of clothes. The first was a yellow t-shirt with blue jeans which she wore from Stage Two all the way to Stage Six. After she believed Dan dumped her for Ana, Josie switched to a black athletic outfit with a pink waistband, and remained in that outfit throughout the series. Also, Josie had long, dark brown hair when she first made her entrance into the series. But when she believed Dan dumped her later on, she cut her hair as a symbolic means of shedding her past, and has remained with her current hair length ever since. In The Web Series Josie is portrayed as a self-sufficient tomboy, experienced in using firearms; throwing weapons; and various martial arts. Unlike Dan, Josie's personality changed over the course of the story. A main theme involved her coming to terms with her depression, and its escalation over the course of the series as she dealt with many setbacks in her chaotic life. However, she is overall determined and optimistic; this was first demonstrated when she bonded with Dan - her future boyfriend - over fighting the giant robot which threatened the Inn as well as the Ninja Rebels of the Resistance (before she joined them), and soon fell in love with the feisty protagonist. Stage Two Josie first appeared in Stage Two; she fought off a robot which threatened to destroy the Inn while Dan arrived to investigate the situation. However, when he decided to fight the robot, Josie soon found out he was outmatched; the mechanized menace began to (literally) curb stomp him. Regardless, Josie was inspired by Dan’s heroic actions, and decided to aid him. She '''retrieved a bolt-action rifle from the Inn, and opened fire at the robot in a bid to aggro it towards her. Dan took advantage of the chaos to obtain a Modern Rifle from a crate, then unleashed a storm of lead at the destructive robot to end its rampage. Eventually, the robot was destroyed, and the duo fell in love. A bonus stage was then triggered; the duo traversed a love themed parkour course which the environment morphed into. Unfortunately for the pair, the bonus stage ended abruptly; it resulted in the pair being isolated on an island in the sky. '''Josie asked Dan what they should do to escape, but he didn't answer since the Player lacked the ability to do so. Then a barrage of bullets fired by Ninja Rebels of the Resistance knocked Dan off the island; she responded by punching one of the Ninja Rebels off his jetpack, and saved Dan. He managed to snatch a gun from another Ninja Rebel and opened fire on their masked assailants. Josie proved to be an expert at operating the jetpack, and dodged enemy fire while Dan continued to shoot down many of the Ninja Rebels. As a result, the experience he gained from defeating them leveled him up; he gained an ability called “Communication,” which the Player learned from a button prompt which Dan taught to the Player. Unfortunately, one of the Ninja Rebels fired a rocket from his RPG7 at Josie’s jetpack and destroyed it; the duo plummeted down towards a pool of lava. After they embraced each other, Josie confessed to Dan she loved him, while he struggled to respond back. After the Player found the right combination, Dan returned her affection, much to her joy. With the Player having met the secret condition to win the stage, the lava pool morphed into a pool of hearts; this saved Josie and Dan. Stage Three Stage Three revealed Josie has a deep seated fear of dying, and death in general. Witnessing the dead and bullet-riddled corpses of the Ninja Rebels of the Resistance - whom Dan shot down in the previous stage while she flew him around using a jet pack - spawned a traumatic memory in her mind based on the dog who ate one of the Ninja Rebel corpse’s flesh; it put her in a blank state of mind while everyone else partied later that evening in the inn, and would continue to haunt her in future stages. After Josie witnessed Dan being assaulted by the Drunk Man, she observed Dan make peace with the troublemaker - instead of fighting back - with success (albeit The Player's repeated failures at resolving the situation first occurred, but she couldn't remember them because of her memories being wiped every time Dan was killed). Stage Four In Stage Four, Josie led Dan to her room for privacy; she called the Geezers playing pool nearby pigs for their perverted suggestions. While inside, she invited Dan to sit down with her in front of her fireplace, then attempted to coax her boyfriend to kiss her. However, due to The Player's inability to enter the correct commands, Dan ended up behaving irrational - using stereotypical game movements, and even jumping on Josie’s head. Then he left her room, much to her bewilderment. When he returned, his new and perverted actions (which he learned from the Geezers) shocked her, prompting her to kick him out of the room. After suffering a flashback of the traumatic event from Stage Three, Josie left her room to investigate strange noises coming from outside; she was shocked at Dan's bizarre interaction with the Geezers from earlier. She re-entered her room, depressed about how the evening had turned out thus far. However, when Dan came back, he admitted to her he didn't know how to make love. Excited, she explained the correct way to do so (using button sequences), each of which initiated a romantic gesture; it ended with the two kissing while they embraced each other. A retro-gaming styled cut-scene showcased - in humorous fashion - that Josie was impregnated by Dan during intercourse that night. Stage Five In Stage Five, Josie watched Dan fight off a Dragon that assaulted the King’s Castle. In the aftermath, the King invited both of them to a wild party on the castle balcony as his way of saying thanks. While Dan was off partying - drunk while wearing nothing but his underwear and helmet (since the rest of his equipment was destroyed in the previous fight) - a rich Executive tried to woo her with money. She is repulsed, however, and instead followed a Waiter who beckoned her to follow them. When Josie reached the basement, she discovered the King’s Castle is powered by a Baby Dragon. The Waiter explained that the Baby Dragon’s fire powered a steam engine; this in turn powered the castle, and allowed the wealthy citizens to continue living their hedonistic lifestyle. She protested in response, but then realized Ninja Rebels of The Resistance were in the room and panicked, believing they were going to murder her in retaliation for fighting them in the past. However, the Waiter revealed their true intentions: to free the Baby Dragon. After being offered an official Resistance mask, she panicked once more and left to find Dan. Unfortunately, due to The Player's influence via QTE (quick time events) inputs, Dan was now dancing nude in front of excited people; this caused her to withdraw in disbelief and help the Ninja Rebels herself. During the fight, the Waiter managed to free the Baby Dragon while Josie calmed it down, letting it know it was in safe hands. Unfortunately, the Waiter was killed in the ensuing battle by the Dark Master; he followed the duo from the balcony, curious as to what they were up to - and figured out the duo’s plan to rescue the Baby Dragon. However, right when he was about to strike Josie down, the Baby Dragon - having become friends with her - chomped down on the Dark Master, and disarmed him as it threw him away. Josie then went to the Waiter’s side; she stayed with them for their final breaths of life to try and ease their pain. Then the Baby Dragon and herself escaped the King’s Castle as flew off into the night - snatching Dan along in tow - and managed to hide in the wilderness. The next day, the Dragon family was reunited with Josie smiling at the turn of events. However, when she turned around, she noticed Dan had thrown up and soiled his underpants, much to her astonishment. Stage Six In Stage Six, Josie developed a hardened and darker personality after seeing Dan ditch her in order to hang out with a female character named Ana, who was actually another player-controlled character like Dan within the web series. Believing her boyfriend dumped her (unaware of The Player's influence on Dan's actions), she fled back to her room and cried on her bed. She then looked herself over in a mirror within her room, wondering if it was her appearance that turned him off; her self-esteem took a hit as a result. After Josie found out she is pregnant with her (now seemingly ex) boyfriend's child, she cut her hair as a symbolic means of shedding her past. In order to give herself a distraction from her current reality, she started to pick up some of the rubble near the inn she resides in (which had been ransacked by a giant robot Dan and herself fought back in Stage Two). Stage Seven In Stage Seven, Dan approached Josie to make up with her for his previous actions (and because The Player learned from Ana that Dan has to marry Josie in order to beat the game in the StudioJoho variant of Stage Six). Unfortunately, she acted hostile towards him for a while, until he fell off a platform to his “death.” Shocked at his sudden departure, she shed her hardened personality which revealed she still loved him - despite everything that happened - and broke down into a horrified state of mind before she fainted. Josie didn’t take Dan's “death” well when she awoke, and although she sought help from several professionals, none of them were able to help her come to terms with the traumatic event - which now displayed Dan‘s corpse being eaten by a wild dog instead. Finally, she jumped off a waterfall, and ended up on the shores of the Dojo. Seeing Josie in despair, the Light Master decided to help. When he approached her, the dog in her traumatic memory broke the third wall, and started to bark at the Light Master. However, he scared the dog off with a sword - which he transformed from his walking cane - and poked the mini bubbles that held Josie’s traumatic memory tethered to her mind. The traumatic memory then floated away into the sky - a humorous take on “letting your problems go.” Relieved, Josie came to terms with believing Dan was no longer alive, and managed to get a handle on her fear of death as well as knowing she will be a single mother in the future, though with varying success (she defeated her fear before the beginning of the official game, but struggled with it until the end of the web series version of Stage Eight). She thanked the Light Master and bowed to him, who also bowed in response. Unfortunately, as Josie '''left the Dojo, she was kidnapped by The Dark Master, and forced to run with some of the Villagers on the peasant-powered treadmill that supplied new energy to the King’s Castle. Stage Eight In Stage Eight, after a sympathetic King’s Guard held off his colleague due to having a change of heart, '''Josie managed to stop the treadmill. However, the Villagers - despite having survived the experience - ended up caught in a huge explosion when The Geezers blew up the nearby wall to save them. She yelled at the Geezers for a few seconds, but panicked when she saw Dan and ran off, unable to believe her boyfriend had come back from the dead - unaware of how the finite lives mechanic works (it should be noted she didn’t lose her memory of the event because Dan had lost all his lives at that point, thus the Player had to use a “Continue” to begin with a fresh new set of lives). Dan and The Geezers followed Josie to try and explain the situation, but eventually lost track of her as they continued on. She then discovered the previous King’s Guard who defected, and hid with him during the chaos of the battle, until a Ninja Rebel of the Resistance found them both. When the Hat Geezer and herself tried to defend the guard for his chivalry, King Resistance executed both the guard and the Hat Geezer - much to her horror. She fled again when she saw her boyfriend, still unable to accept his apparent resurrection. At the balcony of the King’s Castle, the Chief Executive held Josie hostage while Dan struggled to throw his shuriken at the cowardly business leader. Her traumatic memory reached its worst peak - featuring herself as the dog-eaten corpse - until said corpse awakened its eyes. With her fear under her control once more, she turned the tables on the Chief Executive, and restrained him - giving Dan an easy shot. Unfortunately, King Resistance gunned all three of them down; this forced the Player to start the stage over after King Resistance blew up the King’s Castle with bombs his men planted in the sewers. It is left ambiguous if Dan eventually succeeded in rescuing Josie, but due to King Resistance's betrayal he gave Dan another chance with his girlfriend alive once more. The Game The events play out in similar fashion to the web series version of Stage Eight, but with some major differences. First, if the player-controlled character is Josie, the roles are flipped with Dan being the kind; empathetic; and no-nonsense NPC (much like herself in the web series) who is shocked to see his girlfriend is alive once more. The turn of events indicates this version of the game is a separate world where the roles of Josie and Dan are reversed. The level still ends in a similar manner to the web series, albeit a player-controlled Josie will refuse to side with the Ninja Rebels of the Resistance, and beats several of them up this time around. This means NPC Dan is still alive, but held captive in the castle, and leaves a player-controlled Josie to figure out how she will save him on her own. Also, regardless if Josie is player-controlled or the NPC, she doesn't display her traumatic fear of death at any point; this means she handled it much earlier than in the web series. She’s also more calm - in an eerie sense - when NPC Dan was gunned down by King Resistance; this is owing to the fact she’s now a player-controlled character, similar to Dan from the web series, and thus under the Player’s purview - like how Dan managed to hop over corpses without a single care back in Stage Three. Finally, when Josie is the NPC, she isn't held captive by the Chief Executive, and threatens him with a handgun while the cowardly business leader holds the Bald Geezer hostage. She also didn't receive help from a King’s Guard who defects, leaving her to deal with the treadmill problem on her own when several of the guards left to deal with the incoming Ninja Rebels of the Resistance. Other Media Josie is one of the selectable characters in another game from Halfbrick called Booster Raiders. In this game, an all-star cast from various Halfbrick games compete in a sprinting race with each other, using various abilities; avoiding traps on the track; and taking advantage of speed zones to outpace each other. In Josie’s case, she has four different abilities, many of which didn’t appear in the official game of the Dan the Man series, but some were based on elements within the game: * Knife Blast: Josie throws an assortment of throwing knives in front of her. They fan out in multiple directions, thus are capable of hitting multiple opponents on different elevations with careful aim. * Floating Mine: Josie activates a floating mine behind her, which detonates when opponents touch it. * Fire Move: Josie protects herself with an energy shield known as “Dragon’s Soul.” * The Resistance: A global attack; Josie calls for aid from friendly Ninja Rebels of the Resistance, who arrive on jetpacks and assault opponents with their AK Rifles. Josie’s stats within Booster Raiders are an interesting mixture between Attack and Speed, with her low Defense being her key weakness. Neither a true “glass cannon” (high damage, low defenses) nor a normal “fragile speedster” (high speed, low defense), she leans on player skill more than others to keep ahead of the competition. When she does, she possesses two powerful defensive options to hold off her adversaries from overtaking her - especially once her Fire Move ability is upgraded to also damage opponents, which turns her into a human battery ram. However, if Josie falls behind others, her lone ranged attack - Knife Blast - requires careful aim since the knives fly at a slow pace (though they do eventually explode with enough upgrades). Furthermore, her low defense means she doesn’t recover well when hit by other opponents, and while her Fire Move can mitigate this issue to a degree it’s not always available. In short, Josie specializes in close range combat as well as keeping opponents from overtaking her, thanks to her numerous defensive options as well as above average Speed. But if she falls behind, she has to rely on careful usage of Knife Blasts - or ram opponents with an upgraded Fire Move which can damage opponents (preferably with a maximum speed boost) - in order to take back the lead. On occasion, the Ninja Rebels of the Resistance can provide global aid, but it’s a somewhat rare attack option to receive - and it usually appears when you are behind other players, meaning it’s more of a comeback mechanic which you shouldn’t have to rely on. Trivia * When Josie took her pregnancy test in Stage Six, the baby appeared to be somewhere around 4-12 weeks old due to the formation of its head and body. While Stage Four takes place in the same time period as the first three - a single day - it’s unknown exactly how much time had passed from Stage Five and on, leaving it up to speculation how old Josie and Dan’s baby is at that point. * Josie’s behavior which took place after Dan's "death" in Stage Seven is reminiscent of PTSD, a real life psychiatric disorder. She showed signs of this as early as Stage Three, but it triggered in full force when she witnessed someone she cared about seemingly passing away. ** On a side note, Josie is also hinted to have depression, considering the traumatic memory from Stage Three took a turn for the worse during Stage Seven. It’s notable that people who are depressed in real life are sometimes good at masking their symptoms, which makes it difficult on occasion to properly diagnose them. In her case, she was shown to be in love with Dan - who served as an emotional crutch for her mental well being and helped her cope with her depression - which is why she was reduced to an almost lifeless state when she thought he died in Stage Seven. *** Fortunately, Josie seemed to also develop coping mechanisms which helped gain some confidence, many of which were based on real life coping mechanisms people suffering from depression sometimes use to keep themselves composed in life: **** Josie surrounded herself with loved ones who could provide her the support she needed to get through traumatic issues (Dan). **** Josie changed her appearance in order to shed her troubled past (in Stage Six), and kept herself busy with projects to cope with her new reality (in that same stage). **** Finally, when Josie broke under distress and anxiety, she sought out help from those who could provide the mental support she needed. Seeking aid is very important for those who are under distress, and she was wise to enlist help from trained individuals such as therapists - rather than untrained individuals who may not help the situation or even make things worse. Though in this case, it was thanks to the Light Master that she managed to liven up once more, due to a humorous third wall take on “letting your problems go” (or in this case, having it literally float away into the sky). * Josie's catchphrase is 'We can do it!'. This is because the achievement you receive when finishing the whole game with Josie only is named '''We can do it!', and one of the shirts on the Halfbrick clothing store shows '''Josie in a drawing similar to the World War II poster 'Rosie the Riveter' (shown in the gallery), saying '''We can do it!. * '''Josie has a theme song within the series named Josie's Theme; the song played for a short moment after Dan and herself were murdered by King Resistance in Stage Eight. Its melancholic theme is a reference to the troubled times she faced during the entirety of the series, but the light toned pitch at various points of the song is also a reference to her optimism and determination. * In the Halfbrick game Booster Raiders, Josie’s signature ranged weapon is hinted to be throwing knives. While she was never seen wielding them in the Dan the Man web series, it’s a counterpart to the shuriken - Dan’s signature ranged weapon (which he used in Stage One and Stage Eight). ** Also, similar to the official game of the Dan the Man series, the knives in Booster Raiders can be upgraded to appear like the maximum upgraded version in Dan the Man, albeit the knives explode instead of ignite enemies on fire (and does so at an earlier level; the maxed out version only makes the explosions bigger). Image Gallery My Fun Josie "We Can Do it!".jpg Josie ingame.jpeg "Promotional Art".jpg Image.png Yeet das Ks.jpg large.jpg Who This Continue Josie Died!.jpg Dan+Josie-walking-MMO.jpeg Josie's room.png Dh0snko9dfyytxuyo.png Category:Characters Category:Dan the Man game Category:Dan the Man web series Category:Females